Pages - Menu

Friday, October 30, 2015

PrideBook: Facebook is a Tool of Pride

If there is one thing that Facebook is good at, it is assisting a person in proclaiming how wonderful they are. Ego is at the center of Facebook, and for many, ego has taken a life of its own.

Facebook has become a way to befriend people from the past and then let them know just how great our lives are. We try to prove that we are worth more than others by parading our life and so-called accomplishments in front of those who will listen. Yet, who is listening? Who is going to jump through the screen and pat you on the back? Perhaps you are talking to yourself? Perhaps your pride is starting to take on its own existence.

How wonderful are you if you are addicted to (a)social media? If you live your life through Facebook, how great is it? Think about that for a bit. You may list ways in which you are great, but the fact of the matter is, when you are listing how wonderful you are, you are not doing anything productive. You are not improving yourself. You are not doing anything worthy of being called "great." Instead, you are merely bragging to the world, trying to puff yourself up and trying to look better than everyone else. Furthermore, you are rubbing your most-likely exaggerated achievements in the faces of those who may be going through hard times. How wonderful art thou!

Recently I saw a very large fight between some of my family members on Facebook over politics and religion (what else, right?) and could not help but see the sheer amount of time being wasted arguing over such things on the internet. In the end, the comments got out of control and both parties went to their own walls to proclaim how they were right and the other was wrong. Facebook, as usual, was used as a mechanism to draw people away from each other and destroy relationships. As the fight progressed, one person claimed that another person was "a liberal" and, in response, that person felt the need to write her life story, chock full of every accomplishment she has made in her life. Of course, the list was quite long and reading it gave me quite the headache. It was far too wordy, about working for nothing, dual masters degrees, and helping the homeless with shelter in the two houses that this person owned by her own sweat and blood. After a mental golf clap, I realized that it was just another way to show pride, and to show how great one perceives themselves to be. It is great to do things for others, and to achieve things. It is not so great to go on Facebook and brag about them, puff yourself up about it, and use it as a weapon to make yourself seem better than other people. And, one thing that I noticed, this woman is on Facebook a lot!

Facebook: a type of death?

There is no chance of pride leaving Facebook. You will see it within seconds of logging on. Everything points at the person who is posting: Their views are right, their life is front and center, their accomplishments are the biggest and most important, their problems are the most vital, their life is the one to follow. Yet, there are billions of people in the world. Just because you made a post on Facebook does not mean that you are the star of the show. What it really means is that, while others are doing things with their lives, you are sitting on Facebook. Is that really something to be proud of?

Is time spent on Facebook worthy of feeling good about? If you are bragging about your life behind a computer, perhaps you do not have much to brag about. And, what ever happened to giving thanks for the things that one does have? Facebook culture has turned into a person doing something and then running to Facebook to show it off. It's like what young children do, yet on Facebook it is "adults" that are doing it. No wonder there is so much dissatisfaction among many in our "connected" generation. Comparing ourselves to others, hoping to be noticed for what we say and do on the internet, and feeling that we need to prove ourselves on Facebook does nothing positive for the mind. It affects a person. It hurts a person. It is addictive, and there has to come a time when a person stands up and says, "ENOUGH!"

Are you sick of the constant bragging that takes place on Facebook? Do you think that ego and pride has run amok on this website? Do you feel good knowing that a few people are raking in billions of dollars while you are trying to prove your life is something to be envied, and they are laughing all the way to the bank? What are you really on Facebook for? Isn't it time to get away from the site and make a fresh break for it? I think now is a great time to leave Pridebook, or if you prefer, Bragbook. I think there is no better time than the present. Shut it down and walk away. There's no reason for you to have to compare your life with those behind the screen. You have your own life to live, and trust me, it is worth living!

2 comments:

Now regarding to what I've personally asked for… mmm. I worked all through undergrad, but my parents helped me. When I got my first job out of college, I started paying my parents $500 a month as a thank you for supporting me through school. They didn't ask for it, but I wanted to make sure my mother's retirement fund was strong since, had life not gotten in the way, she would have far outlived my father. I won 4 scholarships in undergrad, and I have already repaid one of them. I'll repay the rest when I finish grad school and start enjoying positive cash flow. It will have to wait until then since I'm currently working on 2 masters concurrently. I paid for my masters out of pocket with money I made from working full time until I lost my position, so my last two semesters are being paid predominately with my savings and some with student loans, and LOL those aren't free since you cannot escape repaying them.

I am in the process of starting my first company, which I will be bootstrapping, since I have a financially conservative, risk-averse personality, and I want to ensure my minimal viable products work before I consider seeking capital, aka asking for money. That's not free either.

Now a popular tactic for disarming a potential liberal is by pointing out that we're lazy on the job. The problem with that is that I am a model employee. The first time I got laid off, I was rehired at twice my original salary in a better position. In fact, my company offered my five positions that I didn't seek. One manager, whom I met traveling, offered to hire me on the spot the second he recognized my voice. The second time I got laid off, I decided to enjoy some time since it's not like I need to worry about filling the hole in my resume. What's an interviewer going to ask? "How did you spend this time while you were unemployed?" "Well, I completed two masters, developed my first startup, participated in 4 academic competitions, lead 8 academic teams, consulted for a nonprofit, and gave a speech to CEOs at an exclusive, sold-out event where the person who introduced me reiterated over and over again my leadership qualities." I cannot…even…begin on how much I look forward to that question after I graduate. Oh, and I did all these things while owning 2 houses, providing rent-free shelter to 3 other human beings who aren't my family and would otherwise be homeless at this point, and participating in feline rescue. For that matter, I haven't asked for a single unemployment payment in the past 8 months despite being entitled to them.

Everything you say is true. I never thought of how presenting the great things about my life (vacations, eating out, etc.) might make someone else feel until my husband lost his job. It is a hard time, and when I look at Bragbook, all I see are pictures of people I haven't seen since high school at Disney World, on the beach, traveling in a foreign country or talking about their latest job promotion or complaining about their jobs. Seeing this while I can't take my daughter any of those places for the foreseeable future and my husband would take that unbearable job off their hands in a heartbeat makes our situation even worse. It's not necessarily envy, but a constant reminder of how hard things are for me and how easy it seems others have it.